The Age of Federalism

This magisterial, detailed history of the early American republic through 1800 reminds us that the ``Founding Fathers'' were revolutionaries, full of volatile passions that cemented or shattered friendships and shaped their cultural orientations. Alexander Hamilton's Federalist program calling for a sizable funded debt, a strong national bank, subsidized manufactures and a standing army aroused the deep enmity of Thomas Jefferson, who, the authors maintain, pursued his rival agrarian, egalitarian vision with a ``self-deceiving obstinacy'' that often matched Hamilton's imperiousness. They probe the deep anglophobia of Jefferson, Madison and the Virginia elite, whose decision to place the capital on a stretch of uninhabited wasteland on the Potomac contributed to the young republic's fragmented, provincial culture, according to Elkins ( Slavery ), a Smith history professor, and McKitrick ( Andrew Johnson and Reconstruction ), a Columbia professor emeritus. Full of vibrant portraits of the Federalists and their opponents, this outstanding, provocative chronicle sheds much new light on the emergence of American partisan politics. (Aug.)